MY BREHS! How the HELL did I miss this thread?!
Man I am a DIEHARD Phillies fans and the long drought seems to be coming to an end. I love this team as currently constructed. There's alot to be excited about. From the depth and poise of the young arms (Pedro Martinez said yesterday on MLB Network that the Phillies have arguably the best young bullpen projecting into the future, and he called Vince Velasquez his favorite player right now) to the fact that I'very heard multiple analysts say that we have arguably the best farm system in the league now, which is mind-blowing when you consider where we were not even two years ago with arguably the WORST farm system in the league AND one of the oldest rosters in the league.
Last time we had 25 wins and were this many games over .500 was in 2011, our last championship run. YES, it's still early, and we're still in need of some major parts in spots, namely lacking production from key positions. Not to mention that we have a -30 or so run differential and we're hitting .227 as a team....BUT our pitching and defense have been among the best in the league in several categories. Except for the few vets, all the young stars are 26 and under. Franco, Velasquez, Nola, Eickhoff and Herrara are carrying us into the future, and more young talent is on the way up this year (Crawford, Joseph) thanks to that aforementioned replenished farm system.
Also, I expect Pete Mackanin to start limiting the pitches of these young arms. They can't be pitching 200+ and then expect to be productive IF there's late season playoff hopes. That's where we went wrong with Cliff Lee and Doc, Charlie just let them do whatever they wanted and they ended up staying in the game too long too often.
Any of y'all get to the games? We used to have season tickets when we still lived in Jersey, trying to hit up one of these games in June when we come back to visit.
Anybody else watching this Tigers game right now? Vince Da Don is on the mound tonight.
